


In Vitro

by Kadaaver



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Alien AU, Alternate Universe - Science Fiction, Gen, M/M, alien!junkrat, and poor janitor hog, and yes when i say alien i mean the h.r giger kind, because i have no clue, its just the same setting essentially, pls dont ask how i came up with this, so this is technically a crossover i suppose, the plot is unrelated to the movies, there are ocs but they are mainly there to push plot
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-23
Updated: 2017-04-21
Packaged: 2018-10-09 17:00:22
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,648
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10416834
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kadaaver/pseuds/Kadaaver
Summary: Mako is an ex-convict doing his probation work on board a huge spaceship, owned by the mysterious 'Company'. His job is to do ship maintenance and keep the barracks tidy, not to ask questions. But a lot of questions does come when he one day becomes the caretaker of a deranged humanoid alien, and also one of the most wanted men in the galaxy.(This is under a semi-hiatus. My love for these boys still burns bright but I ran out of inspiration for now ;0; )





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Here we go. First fic I post here and its this abomination. The idea struck me at 1 am last night so I had to get this started today. The first chapter is just a short prologue, and I suppose the more validation I'm fed the bigger this monster is going to become. Cheers ❤ (EDIT 25/3/17: fixed some minor things and added more descriptive factors. <3)

Mako had been aboard the Zephyr for 5 months, but he still hadn’t seen the entirety of the ship. It was huge, just like you’d expect from the Company. The interior of it was a cool steel gray or white, with modern plain furniture. As he had understood it, the Zephyr was a huge transportation shuttle par excellence. But seeing as the journey to its destination was more than a year long, there were hundreds of Company employees aboard, keeping themselves busy with whatever it was they were actually doing. It wasn’t his business. He was just a janitor. One of dozens, he assumed.

He kept to himself, mostly. He had a small, simple room all to himself and his job never demanded him to do much social interaction. This suited him just fine. All the people aboard here were either better-than-thou scientists, stoic military or other maintenance staff like himself. Besides, even if he _would_ have attempted any social interaction, chances are that his intimidating size and appearance would’ve scared most people off. And the fact that he was an ex-convict, he supposed. Not that it was common knowledge, but most people made the right guess based on his appearance. He was a large man, both in height and width. Not the most attractive facial features either, hard and stern features combined with much excess fat. He had sleeve tattoos and a large hidden one on his stomach. And he guessed that he had sorta taken after the prison fashion. That all in combination with a permanent frown, he wasn’t surprised when people noticeably avoided him. But thankfully, this didn’t bother him. It only meant more peace and quiet for him to do his job and then go back to his bunk and enjoy a good book.

This place was much like prison, in fact. He was going to be stuck here for a set date as long as nothing went wrong, he had chores he had to do each day, and then he returned back to a small and empty room. Perhaps that was why being here had felt so natural to him, while other people he had eavesdropped on had complained what a harsh change it was from their normal lives to be stuck here. He had scoffed at the thought. He hadn’t had a normal life in years.

He was currently just finishing up for the day, having done his final round on his designated areas and was now packing up the equipment on his hover cart. As he pushed it through the corridor he walked past a group of scientists. As per usual, he was being ignored, but that did not mean he wasn’t listening in on their whispered conversation.

“So it’s really true? They finally managed?”

“Yes, against all odds. I almost couldn’t believe my eyes.”

“Holy shit, so you saw it?”

“Yeah. I’m not supposed to talk about it but.. yeah.”

“So.. what was it like?”

“… a nightmare.”

Then the two women disappeared around a corner, leaving Mako confused at what he had just heard. Best to not think about it, and best to not ask.

 


	2. Emergency

Two more months have passed, and Mako is in his room when it happened.

First, the power went out. Then the alarm sounded through the speakers. He shot up from his bed as fast as his body could carry him, prepared for the worst. But nothing happened. The alarm was still blaring through the corridors, and the red emergency lights at the floors was lighting up. So Mako went up to his door and stepped outside, deciding to see for himself what was going on. In the dark corridor some more people had gathered, looking equally confused by the situation. He groaned impatiently, realizing that the small crowd where just waiting for someone to say or do something. So he started walking, not quite sure where to yet but someone needed to do _something_. He didn’t get very far however before a voice came out of the speakers.

“Attention all staff and residents. There has been a security breach in science wing B. For your own safety, please remain in your rooms, or, if you’re part of the military, please report to your closest security department.”

The B-wing, that would be three floors above them and about a ten minute walk away. Mako was tempted to return back his room (and to his book) just as instructed, but the fact that the military were being called in was making him unease and utterly unable to relax. And he knew that just sitting around in his room would just make him more restless. The people in the corridor were slowly going back inside, save a couple of them that had ended up in a conversation after the message.

“What do you think it is? They said in the science wing, but what could possibly need military intervention there? Unless they’re keeping dangerous animals for testing..” One woman pondered out loud, seeming very unsettled by the whole ordeal. Her neighbor patted her on her shoulder softly.

“If that’s the case we just gotta wait it out. Try not to worry, the military is just here to keep everyone safe and that’s what they’re doing as we speak. So let’s do as they said and wait in our rooms.” The older man said, seeming very faithful and collected.  Mako remained quiet next to them, but going by their searching gazes he was already considered part of the conversation.

“We should wait.” He added to the conversation, and the older man took this as a cue to turn back to his door.

"I'm just not sure I can be alone right now.. I don’t mean to be intrusive but.. can I stay in your room? Or if you want to come to mine, it doesn't matter.. I'm Liz, by the way." The woman introduced herself, reaching out her hand politely and waited for Mako to greet her. He had seen her around plenty enough before. She had long, dark hair with what he assumed was natural curls. He wasn’t sure about her occupation, seeing as he had never actually spoken to her before.

"Mako." He replied, reaching out to grasp her hand. He almost expected her to pull back when realizing that the sheer size of his hand would engulf hers entirely, but she politely finished the handshake and did not bat her gaze away.

"Nice to meet you. Or, well. Talk to you. Uhm.. shall we..?" She asked, pointing between his own and her door with uncertainty. It was hardly a normal request to make from someone you just spoke your first words to, but he had to admit that a little company wouldn’t be entirely wrong right now. So in response he merely grunted a bit, turning to walk towards her residence. He preferred his own room as a strictly Mako only area.

"Right," She answered, pushing her hand towards the scan-lock and then entered.

"I really appreciate this. I've always been.. nervous. Especially around authorities, you know? I have never broken the law but still I feel like I need to hide underneath the table everytime I see the police. So the military .. well, it's a complicated relation." She rambled nervously, looking very distracted as she walked over to sit on her bed, pulling up her legs under her casually. Mako stood for a while, then took a seat on the armchair in the opposite side of the room.

"Do you get what I mean? Or do I just sound silly?"

"... I get you. I've dealt with law enforcement a lot." He replied, feeling a little bit caught off guard by how relaxed and open she was. He wasn't used to casual socializing.

"Really? I mean.. I hope you don't think I'm being rude now, but you should know that there are some rumors going around about you. People say you were in prison-"

"I was."

"Shit, really? ... Well. Alright. That does explain. Why you don't like the authorities, I mean."

Mako snorted at her verbal clumsiness, but otherwise remained silent. If it was a distracting conversation his neighbor was looking for, he sadly couldn't deliver. But before either of them could fully fathom the awkwardness of the situation, a crackle from the speakers installed in the ceiling had their full attention. They shared a wary look, as they waited for the message to come through. There was some shuffling, rustling of clothes, then finally a breathy sigh against the microphone.

"Attention all personnel. Please report to your closest hangar for evac. I repeat. Go to your closest hangar for evacuation." The voice huffed out, before the speakers clicked off again. Mako and Liz shared another glance, his was neutral and hers was of disbelief.

"What the fuck," Was all she said, before shooting up to her feet and started scrambling around in her room to pack. Mako didn't really feel this same need, as all he owned was a couple sets of clothes and a shelf of books. As she finished up and heaved the duffel bag over her shoulder, she gave him a confused look.

"You're not gonna pack?"

"Don't need anything. You done?"

"Y-yeah."

The two strangers stepped out in the corridor, still confused at what was going on. It had to be something severe if the order to evacuate had come only 10 minutes after the first instruction to stay put. Outside the power was still off, so their only source of illumination was the red floor lights leading to the nearest exit places. It seemed like it was a silent agreement that all the residents in the corridor would wait for eachother and walk together, and he assumed this was a good idea just in case anything actually happened. So when everyone was set, they started walking.

The corridors illuminated in red almost had a ghastly vibe to them. If it hadn’t been for the noise of a group of people flocking through them, Mako was fairly sure that he would’ve been unsettled by this atmosphere.

Between the sound of rushed footsteps, a new sound rang out. Despite being muffled, there was no mistaking it.

“Those are gunshots.” Mako stated, making the people closest to him halt in shock and listen in. When the sounds repeated, loud gasps echoed through the small crowd.

“We should hurry..!” Liz piped up. None of them were really keen on finding out what was causing that gunfire. Was it pirates, possibly? It happened occasionally, no question about it. But there was no use speculating, Mako had to tell himself. The distant shots became more and more rapid, until finally there was just silence again.

Mako panted softly, the fast-paced walk had taken its toll on him. But the hangar gates were right down the next hallway, and from what Mako could tell they were already open, meaning that they weren’t the first ones to arrive.

The hangar was _huge_ , which was an absolute must in order to make room for the large shuttle. It was built like a passenger plane essentially, obviously only meant for bringing people in and out. And in total, the Zephyr had 6 of these spread out evenly across the whole ship. If anything, that gave a fairly good perspective to how huge the Zephyr actually was when it could fit 6 hangars this size.

There was a couple of people outside of it, speaking to what must be one of the military.

“Ah, hurry it up please! We don’t have time to do the checklist off-ship, so everyone just hurry inside and someone will take your name and personnel number..!” The nervous military man instructed, gripping his rifle close to his chest and waved people along.

“What’s going on?” One of the residents from Mako’s dorm asked, but the soldier didn’t even give them a glance in acknowledgement.

“Hey,” Mako’s loud voice boomed. “Whats. Going. On.” He repeated.

“I-I can’t say, sir. It’s classified information. Please. Just get in the ship.”

The response didn’t really help with easing up the mood, but that certainly was not a deal breaker for them to go aboard the evac shuttle. Better safe than sorry and all that. The slightly panicking crowd had formed a half-assed line that was quickly managing to move along aboard. Mako had managed to find a row fairly far back with three free seats, meaning that he could use up two without having to risk sounding rude and ask someone to move. So he took a seat, noticing that once he was sitting he breathed out a relieved sigh. He really wasn’t a young man anymore, and action like this didn’t suit him.

A soft thud next to him alerted him of someone taken the seat aside him, and when noticing it was Liz he gave her a nod of acknowledgement.

“You ok?” He spoke up, and she gave him a smile and shook her head.

“Nah, but I will be eventually. Thank you.” She told him honestly, and he could appreciate that. There was no shame in being shook from an emergency. But she at least seemed to be relaxed enough to lean back in the chair and take a couple of deep breaths.

People kept pouring in at a steady pace. Mako assumed that filling this whole shuttle up would take at least another thirty minutes, so he followed Liz’ example and leaned back to get some rest. He leaned his head towards the window, looking out at the still growing line of people outside the shuttle.

*

He was shook from his slumber by the sounds of distant gunfire. The sounds seemed to shake the whole shuttle, and people panicked left and right.  Instead of getting involved in the hysterics, Mako gazed out through the window he was seated next to, to hopefully manage to spot what was actually going on.

And much as expected, through the open hangar gates a burst of action happened all at once.

Through them stumbled a small squad of soldiers, immediately scrambling to get the doors shut or get in a defensive position.

It was clear they were shouting out directions between eachother, but the thick walls and windows of the space shuttle blocked out what they were saying.

As the doors were closing, a few final lucky people were able to hurry inside, but it was clear that there were still more left out there. Now sealed out there with whatever was causing this commotion.

Some soldiers remained in the defensive position, while two others headed towards the crowded shuttle.

“Listen up!” A loud, military voice boomed. “This is an absolute Code Red. There is an unidentified, dangerous creature on the loose aboard. I need to ask everyone to _stay. Put_. If you still have family or friends out there, there’s gonna be military taking care of them _or_ they’re already aboard another shuttle, so _don’t panic._ ” The gruff soldier ordered out, giving the shuttle passengers a look over.

“We’re taking off ASAP. Please remain seated.” Came a voice through the speakers, and the shuttle’s engines audibly started up. The final group of people trickled in, and eventually the space craft started moving. Loud noises from outside confirmed that the airlock was opening up for their departure, and the shuttle turned around to face towards the exit once it had moved up onto the drive-way.

The humming of the engines grew louder and louder, and the ship started accelerating.

Despite the loud noise from the engines, Mako could still make out a distinct screeching sound. Like metal grinding against metal. He did not think so much of it. But perhaps he should have, because the next thing he knew was the realization that the shuttle was derailing straight towards the wall, and the sounds of hundreds of screams.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My apologies if this chapter felt like slow chewing gum, because that's sorta how it was writing it. We're building up for finally meeting Jamie though! I'm really excited!
> 
> And thanks a lot btw for all the kudos and kind words <3 its kept me going!!


	3. Jamison

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally we meet Jamie, the weird space monkey!
> 
> I want to apologize for this taking so long, I sorta lost the writing spark but then after a longer break I sat down yesterday and wrote 7 pages in one sitting, so here we are! 8D

What must’ve been hours later, Mako woke up from an increasing throbbing pain on his forehead. He was still strapped tightly into his seat, but had been thrown against the seat in front of him by the collision. He brought a hand up to his head where it hurt the most, but cringed hard from just the brief touch. His fingers came down bloody.

He remained in this position for some time, collecting his thoughts before he leaned back against his seat. His head was spinning and his vision was foggy, but he could still make out what had happened.

The shuttle had been torn apart from the crash. People had been tossed left and right, and Mako was really lucky that he had picked a seat so far back, since the people that had been in the middle of the shuttle had just been catapulted outside. Needless to say, it was a slaughter ground. There was a lot of dead bodies.

Hesitantly, he turned his gaze next to himself, finding Liz in a slumped over position. Her hair was covering her face, so he couldn’t make out if she had been knocked out similarly as he had. As fast as he could, he took off his own seatbelt and reached over to her, first tilting her head up to check for breathing and a pulse. She was alive, but unconscious.

Mako furrowed his eyebrows. He needed to get the two of them away from the crash site.

A loud gasp and panicked whimpering from a couple of rows forward caught his attention, and he tried to spot from where it came. But instead of finding a survivor, his eyes landed on the cause of the distress.

Rising from a crouching position in front of the whimpering man, a huge, jet black, humanoid creature came into view. Its head was an almost exaggeratedly long cylindrical shape and at the bottom of it was a mouth full of teeth. It was more than enough visual information to make Mako want to get out of here.

He kept an eye on the focused creature while frantically working to get Liz unbuckled from her seat. She was stirring slightly, which was good. But he did not want her to alert the seemingly busy creature.

But all of a sudden, the thing just took off. Mako couldn’t quite tell, but it seemed like it had brought the whimpering man along. That was only one more reason for him to hurry it up. He finally got Liz unfastened, and patted her cheek a couple of times to try and wake her up.

“Huh… wha..?” She finally pressed out, her head still drooping a bit but at least she seemed to be fully awake.

“Liz. Look at me. How are you feeling?” He asked cautiously. He had absolutely no training or knowledge how to handle a situation like this. He barely even knew the basic emergency treatment.

Liz seemed to response well enough however, following his instructions and glanced up. Her face was blooded and bruised as well, and she looked a little disoriented. But Mako was fairly sure he gave off a very similar vibe.

“I feel like a house just collapsed on me.” She groaned out, her eyes still squinting from the effort to try and get the world back in focus.

“Jesus Christ. What happened?” She breathed out when she realized the devastation they were in the middle of.

“We crashed. And we gotta get out of here. It’s dangerous.” Mako said, only filling her in very briefly but he didn’t exactly feel like sitting out here in the open with that huge creature around for longer than they already had.

“I’ll help you. Come on. Try not to look around so much.” He instructed as he pushed himself up from his seat, and then helped her do the same thing. His legs felt weak, but it would have to do. Liz complied, wrapping one of her arms around Mako the best she could. Then slowly but surely, the two of them began to make their way down and out from the wreckage.

As they walked past the row of seats where the black creature had been, Mako got it confirmed that it had indeed slipped off with the poor sod that had sat here before. But he really didn’t need to think about the full implications of that right now.

By her silence he could tell that she was not doing as she had been asked, and was looking around in the area of destruction. A sight like this was more than enough to affect the mentality of even the strongest person. Mako felt it too. Sure, he had seen a lot of shit through his days but there was a difference from seeing a dangerous gang member get a bullet through his head and to witnessing so many innocents just have their lives snuffed out completely in vain.

They had managed to slip out of the hangar the same way they had entered it, only that this time it wasn’t through a manually opened gate; the metal was torn open, forming a huge gap in the previously considered safe gate.

“What the fuck happened here..” Liz muttered softly, still exhausted from the trauma they both had gone through.

“Careful. The edges can be sharp.” Mako instructed while helping her through, disregarding her question and kept his focus on just getting the two of them out of here as fast as possible.

All of a sudden, a loud call broke the otherwise eerie silence.

“Hey you! Over here!”

At the end of the corridor was a small group of people. Three, to be exact. They were “armed” with things such as pipes or metal bars, and while looking a little worse for wear they still seemed relatively intact, and Mako concluded that these people had not been in the crash.

“Jesus, are you two okay? We didn’t think anyone had made it from that explosion..” One of them said, an older man, and Mako recognized him as one of the other maintenance members.

“She needs a doctor.” Mako replied gruffly, nodding to Liz who was still clutching to his side.

“We don’t have one but.. we should look you both over. In a safe place.” The man, who very much beamed out a group leader vibe. But what struck him as odd was how casual these people looked. Like they could’ve been right there in the escape shuttle too, among the other civillians. So why where they scouting the corridors like a patrol group and armed with makeshift weapons?

“You guys are not military.” Mako observed, and received and immediate scoff in return.

“Nah, those fuckers took off first thing when they realized we were fucked. Whatever is going on here, they didn’t want to take part of it.. I can fill you in on the details when we’re back at home base.”

Mako grunted at the brief explanation, turning his gaze down to check in how Liz was doing. Her eyes were dazed and unfocused, but she was managing to walk forward at least.

“How far?” Mako prompted, looking back up again.

“It’s on the next floor. Maybe a ten minute walk. Will she be ok?” The man said, looking between Mako and Liz, to try and prompt a reaction out of her.

“We’ll see. Let’s go.”

*

An elevator ride and short walk later, they had made it into one of the medical facilities, which apparently was “home base”. That was clever enough, Mako pondered. But he assumed that they had been drawn here more out of necessity rather than planning.

In the room there were more people. He didn’t bother to count heads but they were at least over twenty in here. Perhaps this was the ones that had not managed to get on the shuttle? In that case, lucky them.

He was assisted to set Liz down on a stretcher by a short woman, and then took a seat on a chair next to it. He remained quiet for a while, merely watching her go over Liz’s wounds.

“So?” He eventually asked, gaining the attention of several people, including the man that had done most of the talking before.

“… Right. What happened. Well.. for starters, you guys must’ve been out of it for what.. three hours? Something like that. We checked on the wreckage briefly but.. Guess we didn’t check good enough. I’m sorry for that.” The man said, looking a bit regretful.

“It was dangerous. Don’t blame you.” Mako replied, not really feeling like dealing with this man’s regrets right now.

“Thanks.. well. Alright, so as maybe you figured.. we’re the ones that didn’t make it to the escape ships. After the first one crashed, the military and scientists used the ones that were left. Apparently us common folk are considered expandable in an emergency.”

“They were scared.” A voice from the back piped up, and made Mako glance up. The owner of the voice was a young woman with red hair. She wasn’t looking at them, but rather kept her gaze locked on the wall in front of her.

“They said there was a security breach or some shit like that, yeah? Not all of us saw it but.. there was a-“

“Monster.” Mako finished for her, and she looked up in surprise.

“You’ve seen it?”

“Yes. It took a man from the crashsite. I had just woke up.” He explained, and all of a sudden all gazes were on him, Liz’s included.

The red haired woman definitely looked surprised, but her body language relaxed somewhat.

“Well.. that’s the reason they ran. I saw one of those things face to face. They kill people. Cut through them like butter.”

“Alright Mills, that’s enough.” The group leader interrupted her. “So now there’s two people who have seen it. But we still have no idea what it is. Or how many there are of them. And why they were here in the first place.”

“No use in speculating. We just gotta stay put and wait for the rescue team.” The woman who had been tending to Liz said. She seemed content enough, and moved on to check on Mako. It was a fairly basic checkup. All she did was check for any signs of concussion and made sure that nothing was broken.

“We should let these two rest. They have been through a lot, and so have we. Maybe it’s time to settle down so everyone can progress what’s happened.” She said after she was done, and Mako felt thankful for someone else putting his thoughts to words. It maybe wouldn’t be the best to tell his rescuers to fuck off the first thing he did.

The medical facility fell quiet as people gradually left to mind their own business or go to sleep, leaving Mako and Liz alone. She was obviously still pretty out of it, but going by her expression it seemed like she was thinking hard about something.

“Mako..?” She eventually asked, and he gave a quiet grunt in reply.

“When you said that you saw a monster.. what did it…?”

“.. It was large. Bigger than a human. Black as coal. No eyes and too many teeth.” He described very vaguely. He hadn’t seen it for long either. Only long enough for it to make an impression.

“It took some poor sod away. But I didn’t actually see it happen. Tried to get you up and running the moment I saw it get busy.”

“.. Thank you.”

“Hm?”

“You could’ve left me but.. you saved my life. So thank you.”

Mako paused a bit, then offered a soft grunt in response. He didn’t know how to deal with this kind of gratefulness at all.

“Rest.” He ordered gruffly, and then tucked him head into his arms to try and get some rest.

*

Mako was woken up around seven in the morning next day by the sounds of busy feet. There wasn’t a lot of people here, but with how big and open this facility was it was impossible to get some undisturbed rest when anyone else was awake.

Begrudgingly, Mako sat up and massaged his temples. Sleeping in a sitting position had certainly not been kind on his body, so it was with some hesitance he pushed himself up.

“Oh, morning big guy!” The leader addressed him over the hall. Mako grunted in response, and approached to see what the fuss was about.

“We’re gonna head out on a little supply run. And maybe check if we find someone else on the way. You interested in helping? By the way, I realized there was hardly any introductions yesterday. I’m Harrison. I’m a security guard. And you?”

Mako gave it a couple of seconds to let all the questions land and decide what to answer. It might in fact be good if he accompanied them, just for the sake of keeping himself occupied with something.

“Mako.” He finally replied, gruffly. “I’ll come along.”

Harrison looked a little confused, like he had been expecting a little more information out of him, but he didn’t push it. Smart man.

“Mako, alright. Well, if you’re all set then I see no reason to dwell around here any longer. Let’s go!” He said, gesticulating to the other three people that seemed to be accompanying them that they were heading out. Mako hummed, throwing the stretcher Liz was sleeping on a glance to confirm she was there and alright, then he followed them out.

The entrance to the medical facility had been locked and barricaded during the night, just because Mills had insisted they would need it in case that “monster” decided to pay a visit. The others who still remained skeptical had expressed their doubts, but the red haired woman had remained clear on her request.

So after having pushed the furniture away and unlocked the door, they stepped out in the large corridor. This whole ship was like a labyrinth of corridors, and there wasn’t only one floor of them, but six. Luckily there were clear directions and maps available around almost every corner, but nevertheless navigating was still a challenge when everything looked the same.

After some time of walking they approached the cafeteria.

“We’ll cover some more ground if we split up. We go two and three, ok? Mako, you go with Alan. Check the storage rooms. We’ll take the cafeteria. Group up here in 30 minutes unless you encounter any troubles.”

The man that Mako had been assigned to nodded courtly, and was on his way. Mako followed a couple of meters behind him and began the search for provisions.

About ten minutes passed, and they had been silently gathering whatever they had found on a desk near the storage exit. They could hear the sounds of the others rummaging around from the outside, and things seemed to be going smoothly enough, until all of a sudden a startled shout echoed through the large cafeteria hall, accompanied by a series of crashing sounds.

Mako tensed up immediately, listening for what was happening next. It could have been one of their just dropping a couple of pots in the kitchen after all.

But then a panicked scream followed by a stream of curses cancelled that theory, and Mako didn’t hesitate to drop what he was holding as he hurried to the source of the ruckus.

When he entered the kitchen he only had time to take notice of two things. The first; the fact that there was blood everywhere, and the second; Harrison and the other two men were wrestling down a naked boy. He couldn't for the life of him fit two and two together, until eventually he saw a flash of black and one of the men screamed again.

The black thing turned out to be a long, coiling tail seemingly attached to the naked figure. The end of it was pointed like a knife and was visibly coated in blood.

Not taking any more time to be shocked by the situation, Mako threw himself in there and grabbed onto the thrashing tail, making the creature scream in terror from having its weapon restrained.

"Hurry, throw it in the freezer!" Harrison screamed, and Alan who had just arrived hurried to run and open the door to the freezer room.

Mako was still holding the thrashing tail tightly, and he would be lying if he said it wasn't putting up a good fight. The others who were holding the abomination itself grabbed on and ran with it toward the open door.

It was a fierce struggle but it over in a matter of seconds when the door finally slammed shut, but the adrenaline and the shock was still going strong.

"What the fuck" Harrison finally hissed out, as he started pacing around the absolutely wrecked room. The man who had been cut was crouching down on the ground, tending to the wound the best he could by wrapping a torn piece of fabric around it.

"What the fuck kind of freakshow is this. What the fuck was that?!" Harrison shouted again, but froze when his raised voice caused the imprisoned thing to throw a fit as well.

Mako slowly approached the window. It was covered in frost but he could make out a shape moving on the inside. Pale skin with black limbs. He hadn't been able to get a good look on it considering there had been four people wrestling it down against the ground all at once.

"What happened?" He asked, leaning back from the freezer door and did a quick look around the room. Just because they had locked one danger away it didn't mean they were fully safe.

"I have no idea. We first thought it was a civilian hiding in there but...Well.. When we got close it lashed out. We had it cornered and it was angry. Sliced me up real good." The wounded man said, hissing as he caressed his wrapped up leg carefully.

“Mako. Was that the thing you saw on the ship?”

“… not really. It didn’t look like a person at all. This one did.” He answered truthfully, glancing back inside but to no avail.

“So there’s more?! Fuck. Fuck. Okay. We gotta get back. Get medical supplies. Then figure out what to do about this mess.” Harrison bit out, gesturing towards the freezer dejectedly.

*

They had all felt a little reluctant on leaving the creature unattended, but they figured since it was locked inside an ice cold room with a thick steel door it would most likely be okay. Mako had brought up that maybe it would freeze to death, but none of the others had seemed so bothered by this possibility.

Back at their “camp” people had been quick to rush to help when the scouting group had come back scratched up and wounded. And after sharing what had happened, the reaction to them having left the alien/human hybrid unsupervised was majorly objected on, so Mako volunteered to stand guard.

And that is how he found himself back in the kitchen so soon again.

It was eerily quiet. The bloodstains on the ground had since long dried but they were still there. A reminder of the intense struggle the four of them had to put up to restrain such a small figure.

Mako had investigated the surroundings a bit, trying to spot any clues as to why the hybrid had been hiding in here. He found nothing of interest, well, besides a fire axe that now hung from his belt and a bag of dried fruit.

He was leaning against the wall next to the door, munching away on the small fruit bits but also listening for any sign of activity from the inside.

Truth was, he was curious. This things partial humanity couldn’t be denied, and Mako wanted to know if it was actually sentient and able to hold a conversation. So having it locked into a room that which temperature was below freezing.. It didn’t sit too well with him.

He took another look through the window, and this time he hesitantly knocked on the glass.

No reaction.

He knocked again.

“If you can hear me in there… and if you can understand me.. come here. Where I can see you.” He instructed, hoping that his voice would cut through the thick steel door.

Once again, there was no reaction, not even a movement on the inside. And this lead Mako to two different theories. Either the creature couldn’t understand him, or it was frozen solid.

He stared hard at the window, debating if he should open the door or not. It could be a trap. He could be walking in on having his throat sliced by that sharp tail. But the look on the hybrid’s face hadn’t been one of a vicious predator, it had been a look of absolute terror from being cornered and restrained.

And it was like his body decided before his mind did, as his hand grabbed and unlocked the door. He stopped to listen, but it was still quiet. Just in case, he brought up the axe to be able to defend himself. He took a step back and gave the door handle a tug. It opened up slowly, and Mako half expected to get pounced. But once again, there was just nothing. And the silence was almost deafening.

He took a very hesitant step inside, clutching onto the axe that felt oh so small in his hand. The cold hit him all at once, and he knew immediately that whatever this thing was, it couldn’t still be up and running after being trapped here for over an hour.

A soft rattling noise from above him actually had Mako startled. He searched the ceiling and the walls for the source, and eventually his eyes landed on what he previously had thought was just a cable. But the sleek, black thing coiled into itself and disappeared on top of the shelf it had hung out of.

Mako took a deep breath, waiting for something to happen, but he was starting to feel more and more confident that this creature truly was more scared of them than they were of it.

“I know you’re there.” He finally said, but didn’t receive any response. He was silent for a bit, thinking of what the hell to even say.

“It’s… cold in here.” He finally pressed out. It felt incredibly dumb, considering that he didn’t even know if the creature could understand him or not. But he guessed he would have to be patient and see, so he stood still and looked at the shelf. It was too high up even for Mako to see what was on top of it. A brilliant hiding place for something small and scared.

“I want to help you. Not hurt you. The others are scared of you but.. they haven’t seen those other things. I have. And you don’t look half as scary as they do.” Mako said, trying to assure both himself and whatever was hiding on top of that shelf to not be scared.

To Mako’s surprise, a very human face finally peeked out from the shelf. Mako had expected large and scared eyes, but the look he received only said one thing; “help.”

Hesitant yet again, Mako realized that he would have to take the first step here. He stepped forward, feeling his nerves creep up on him now when he was actually approaching. Slowly, he raised his arms to be able to reach. But he wanted to make sure first that he wouldn’t be bit or sliced.

“I’m going to lift you out now.” He warned.

When nothing happened, he reached in and grasped the slender shoulders just as he had announced, and when no resistance was given he tugged the body out. Halfway out, Mako realized that he would actually have to catch him. There didn’t seem to be any fight left at all in the poor bugger, so as carefully as he could he collected the surprisingly heavy body in his arms and carried it outside.

Now when he was so close, and the hybrid wasn’t panicking, he could finally get a good look on this thing in its entirety.

To begin with, it was way more human than Mako had first thought. And he was undoubtedly male.

He was incredibly pale, but that was perhaps from being so cold. That was the normal parts of him at least. His right arm and both his legs were completely black, with twisted and sharp looking anatomy that had strange patterns. His legs looked downright broken but he could obviously walk so that must be “normal”, if you could call it that.

Then there was the tail. The appendage was probably as long as Mako was tall, and it was heavily ridged, almost to the point of it looking like a spine. And the end of it was, just as he had observed earlier, pointed like a blade.

Whatever this guy was, he seemed to be clever enough to understand that Mako was helping him. Because he meekly clung onto his short with his human hand and attempted to tug himself closer to the heat source; Mako’s chest.

He wasn’t certain what to do from here on. The obvious answer was to slowly warm this guy up again, but he was kind of limited on supplies. He sat the nude body down on a desk, not stopping to watch how he curled into himself in an attempt to save his body heat. Mako looked around a little bit and eventually found a fire blanket that would have to do. He turned back around to the shivering shape patiently waiting right where Mako had left him.

He unfolded the blanket while approaching and carefully extended it, hoping that he wouldn’t have to do all the work himself. Some seconds passed with neither of them really moving, and eventually Mako gave in with a grunt as the guy just couldn’t stop shaking. He grabbed the corners of the blanket and pulled it around the misshaped body.

With just his head sticking out like this, he could easily be mistaken for a normal person. Mako hadn’t really manage to reflect over the guy’s face before, but now when there was no nightmare-ish body parts to be distracted by he was able to get a better impression. Firstly, underneath all that dirty and dried blood, he looked young. Mako had never been good at guessing peoples age, but this guy could not have hit his thirties yet.

His face shape was long and narrow, with a sharp nose and very prominent jaw and chin. His cheeks were slightly sunken in, and the same went for his eyes. His eyebrows were wild and unkept, much like the hair on top of his head. Or, well, what was left of it. There were only a few and short patches of blond hair left on top of it.

Mako hadn’t realized he was staring until the hybrid made eye contact. His eyes were the only thing about his face that was definitely not human. They were an almost glowing, toxic orange with strangely shaped pupils.

It was a good reminder to not yet relax around this thing.

“Can you talk?” Mako finally asked, maintaining eye contact despite how unsettling this guy’s gaze was. The hybrid’s face contorted slightly, his lips lifting up and revealing similar pointed teeth like Mako had seen on the monster onboard the shuttle.

“Y-yes.” He stuttered out. His nasal voice was trembling from the cold and most likely exhaustion.

This definitely changed things. Mako had felt like he had been talking to a scared animal before, but this was obviously a sentient and intelligent being.

“.. Why did you attack us?” Mako asked, wanting to clear this out before anything else happened.

Now the hybrid seemed frustrated. He tugged the fire blanket closer to himself and glared down into the floor.

“S-scared. There were many. Loud and rude.” He answered, short and promptly and with an accent Mako couldn’t quite place.

It was just as he had thought, then. Thought this opened up a whole lot of new questions, and Mako couldn’t deny that he had almost hoped that this guy would’ve been a wild animal. It surely would’ve been much easier to handle. With a sigh, Mako turned around and closed the door to the freezer, then leaned his back towards it and watched the hybrid carefully. He was still shivering, but it had calmed down a little bit at least. His eyes seemed a little bit more awake now, too. And he was curiously investigating Mako with his gaze.

“Name?” He finally spoke up, his orange eyes flickering between Mako’s face and his large belly. Mako realized that he was perhaps the biggest human this thing had ever seen.

“Why would I tell you?” Mako challenged, earning a surprised expression that quickly turned into an intensely pondering one.

“Why not?” The hybrid finally asked after an unnecessarily long thinking time.

“Because you cut up some good people. And just because I pulled you out of the freezer it doesn’t mean we’re friends.”

The hybrid shot him a nasty look, and started to very carefully unfold his legs from under the blanket. He sat them down on the floor, and Mako couldn’t help but look. He hadn’t understood what was up with his legs before, but now when he saw him move, he realized that this guy was a digitigrade.

Carefully, he slid down from the desk completely. He was trembling slightly and clutching the blanket around himself tightly still. He was slouching, but Mako guessed that was an involuntary effect from his anatomy.

“Good people do not come and wave weapons in your home. You all are bad people. Put me in the ice room, too. Bad.”

Mako did not know what to say.

It felt like he had just been called out by a five year old. Not only was this guy speaking in a strange accent but his English was the strangest Mako had ever heard.

“This is a kitchen. We were looking for food to help us survive. No one knew you were in there and you startled them.” Mako explained, trying to be as patient as he could and not overstep any boundaries.

The hybrid gave him a skeptical look and started to look around in the kitchen. His steps were light but there was still a soft clicking noise each time his claws touched the floor. He didn’t stray far, only in a half circle around Mako to get to the bag of dried fruits he had dropped earlier. He gave Mako a quick glance to make sure he wasn’t going to lash out, then quickly snagged the bag and skipped back on top of the desk again.

There was a long silence, the only thing interrupting it was the occasional rustle of the plastic bag.

“Okay. Okay. If I… give you one of my claws.. Will you say your name?” He asked hopefully, holding up his right hand for emphasis.

“… what. No. Don’t need it when I have this.” Mako said, motioning to the axe that still hung from his belt.

“No good then, no good.” The hybrid concluded, sounding a little bit disappointed when his idea hadn’t worked.

“How about a finger?”

“Fuck’s sake, keep your body parts attached to yourself.” Mako hissed at him, giving him a disgusted expression by the thought. What the fuck was wrong with this guy.

The hybrid seemed to think long and hard, his tail swaying slowly behind him. Mako would not deny that it still made him nervous. He had felt that thing’s force firsthand, and going by the perfect control the hybrid seemed to have of it, he could easily spear Mako from where he was sitting.

“.. Jamison.”

Mako glanced up, raising his eyebrows a little.

“What did you say?”

“Jamison. My name. You’re supposed to introduce yourself when you ask for someone’s name, right? That’s what I did wrong?”

Mako stared at him, not sure what to say at first. It was like he went from batshit crazy to relatively sensible in just a couple of seconds.

“.. Mako.”

And with this, Jamison lit up like a sun.

“Mako! What a good name. Good name for a good guy. Are you from Earth?”

“Why.. do you know about Earth?” Mako asked, the unease from earlier slowly creeping back on him.

Earth was a shithole, a planet long forgotten when humanity had left it to colonize space instead. The better parts of humanity at least. The ones still living on Earth were all considered dirty criminals, because crime was what you had to do to survive down there. Mako knew this because that had been his childhood, before escaping that godforsaken place with a pirate spaceship.

“Because.. I was told about it. They asked. I did not know, so they told me. Humans came from Earth, but not anymore. Right?”

“Who told you?”

“Humans! Of course. Trying to teach me how to be human.”

“Why would anyone try to teach an alien how to be human?” Mako asked, the words slipping out before he had time to think about them.

That obviously struck a nerve for Jamison, who lifted his upper lip in a displeased grimace.

“I’m an accident, not an alien. Both starts with the letter A but it’s not the same thing.” He said in a defensive manner, as if he was used to having to repeat this.

“Jesus Christ..” Mako muttered. Jamison was only giving him scattered clues here. Nothing to really go by when it came to trying to figure out what had been going on here, because Jamison and those other things must’ve been onboard the Zephyr this entire time.

Jamison didn’t seem all too bothered by this. He was still holding the fruit bag and was happily helping himself with its contents.

“I should.. talk to the others. About you.” Mako said quietly.

Jamison seemed less enthusiastic about this idea, as he had visibly reeled back from Mako, despite not having been particularly close in the first place.

"Those people who were rude? Why?"

"Because, it's safer in numbers. You'd do better with them than by yourself. If I go.. will you wait here?" Mako asked uncertainly. He wasn't sure why he felt so insistent on bringing this actual abomination along. Maybe because he was curious? Because Jamison wasn't at all like Mako had expected him to be? (Not that he had many expectations in the first place, but just the fact that Jamison had a name and personality was enough to rise Mako's curiosity.) And most importantly perhaps, maybe Jamison knew what exactly had been going on here.

The man in question had shrink into himself a bit, crouching on top of the kitchen desk still with the bag still clutched in one hand. He was looking deep in thought, and a little frustrated on top of that.

"Fine. But only for Mako. If someone else comes? Bad. I will hide." He concluded, speaking with obvious distaste and scrunched his face into a grimace to make this even more obvious.

"Tell them I want an apology." Jamison added, then jumped up from the desk and disappeared up above the ceiling panels.

Mako was a bit taken aback by this, watching as the long tail followed and then Jamison was completely out of sight. He stared a bit at the ceiling, his mind still trying to piece together what he has just experienced. But he guessed that it was probably just better to get moving than remain here any longer than necessary.

Now his next problem was how on earth he was going to explain this to the rest of the group without sounding insane.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'd once again like to thank everyone for their support about this silly idea!


End file.
